Arctic Songbird Adventures

What a wonderful blessed day we had today. We walked into town and attended First Baptist Church where we were welcomed by everyone. Our new bicycle trekker friend, Robert, followed us to church on his bike.  The church building is approaching 200 years old and it was magnificent! Stained glass, a pipe organ, wooden pews, and real hymnal books to sing from! We quickly became known as the "Boat People" and after the service we met the Frasier family. Their teenage daughter Connie, was interested in a boat ride so we brought her along down the canal through two locks into St Johnsville. Her parents met up with us and treated us to ice cream which was delicious on this beautiful hot day. These are dairy farmers that are true hard working folks and supply us with the milk and cheese we consume at a tremendous rate....well, at least my family does! These folks enjoying hunting, guns, ATV's, snowmobiles, and being outdoors! I could fit right into this slice of heaven in NY. ...

A great day with temps in the mid 70's and only a few boats on the canal. We have 17 locks to go until Waterford, where we enter the Hudson River. We biked 5.5 miles around Little Falls and explored the historic building section, as well as several war monuments and local memorials honoring fire and law officials. The boater facilities are great with laundry, hot showers, ice, and more. We met a neat man that is on his third bike ride across the country....and he is 65! He is camping in his tent along the canal and is planning on going to church with us tomorrow. What an inspiration! Another great day!

Our first day going uphill in the locks so that was a bit different. We also went across 30 mile long Lake Oneida which was like a mini ocean. More boats are beginning to appear as we get to Memorial Day weekend. We saw a hand-built boat about 25-28 feet in length with a home port of Wasilla, AK and it was parked at a B&B. I called the number and had a nice chat and learned the history of the boat. It has been around the Great Loop twice and explored thousands of miles of the countries waterways. Very impressive! We finally passed the beer barge we have been hearing about for days. Huge beer storage tanks too big to transport on the highway were being shipped on the Erie! We ended up in Rome, NY and had a well deserved dinner out at a neat place called Coal Charlie's. The Tollhouse Pie with ice cream was "scrump"! We needed to walk off those extra 1000 calories so we made it to Fort Stanwix. We met Major George Bray and learned a lifetime of facts about the French Ind...

It was a very wet day cruising with over 1 inch of rain falling. We went through several locks and one decent sized lake. Finally there were a few miles where we could blow the carbon out and cruise at 25 knots. Prior to today we were cruising at 6.8 knots due to the speed limit and for fuel conservation. We ended up in Baldwinsville and explored this canalside charming town. The cemetery is full of veterans that date back into the 1700 and 1800's. It was very humbling to see the birthday and date of death on the stones. A lot of good men from NY lie in this beautiful cemetery. On our way back from our after dinner walk, we stopped in and met the Lockmaster. He gave us a personal tour of the working machinery of the lock, which dates back to 1910, and is all original! Thanks Mike for the personal tour!

Day 4 on the Erie Canal: we woke up to a very wet and rainy day in Newark, a small town about 1/3 of the way eastbound. We stayed in Brockport on night 2 and explored Fairport yesterday, to take a break and let the dogs run. We have been through six locks and under a dozen or so lift bridges. Everyone is very friendly and readily shares their local information on the attractions and history. I think between the three of us we have taken 1000 pictures so far.

We are on our way down the Erie Canal. We successfully went down our first locks ib Lockport. There were only two other boats and one local tour boat we saw today. The marina only has one boat...us! Before and after dinner we managed to get in 8 miles of biking. Beautiful country!